A reference leaf is a file that has already been submitted but needs to appear in the XML backbone to indicate it is part of the current submission. You can use a previously-submitted and reviewed Submissions Archive document as a reference leaf, reducing the review time at the relevant Health Authority.

About Reference Leafs

Vault supports reference leafs to documents in previous submissions within the same application or to documents in separate applications with the same Lead Market. Additionally, you can only choose a reference leaf from a Submission with an Actual Submission Date (actual_submission_date__rim) and Dossier Status which is not Publishing Active.

When you set a reference leaf, Vault does not republish the document, but instead links to the document using its Published Output Location. Vault populates document fields that appear in the published output with values from the referenced document’s submission metadata. All other attributes come from the current content plan.

How to Set a Reference Leaf

Across Submissions & Applications

To set a reference leaf for submission documents in separate applications with the same Lead Market:

  1. Navigate to a Content Plan Item record with a Node Type (xml_node_type__v) of Leaf or Reference-Leaf. From the Actions menu, click Set Reference Leaf.
  2. In the Set Reference Leaf dialog, confirm the selected Application based on the record’s Primary Application field. You can select a different application for any country except Canada (CA). (Cross-application reference leafs are generally not recommended outside of the US, but are only prevented for CA submissions.)
  3. Optional: Select a Submission.
  4. Click a document from the hierarchy to use as a reference leaf. Vault highlights your selection in blue and populates the Name and Published Output Location at the top of the dialog. To change your selection, single-click the new item.
  5. Optionally, for Canada (CA): Check Replace / Reuse. When selected, Vault updates the XML Modified File and XML Operation fields.
  6. Click Save.

Vault uses the target file’s checksum to populate the Checksum field for the current leaf element and updates the Node Type and Published Output Location to the new reference leaf.

Within a Submission

To create a reference leaf within the same submission, match the same document to all applicable Content Plan Items. During publishing, Vault uses the first instance of the matched document within the structure to populate the Published Output Location field with the location of the new reference leaf.

To replace a reference leaf when one is already created, update matched documents and then update the Published Output Location with the new location.

Correcting Leaf Source File Paths

Using the Set Reference Leaf feature in Submissions Publishing may indirectly impact the Submissions Archive functionality to correct Leaf Source File Paths.

When using the Set Reference Leaf feature, Vault automatically updates the Published Output Location of the Content Plan Item the action is being run on.

For cross-Submission referencing, the path is constructed to locate the document within the current Application. For cross-Application referencing, the path is constructed to locate the document within the relevant Application.

If using the Set Reference Leaf feature on an Application that requires the use of Correcting Leaf Source File Paths, ensure the action to Correct Leaf Source File Path is done before running Set Reference Leaf.

See Configuring Submissions Publishing for information on the Content Plan Item and other object and lifecycle permissions required to set a reference leaf.